Robbie Williams yesterday accepted substantial libel damages over claims that he was secretly homosexual and had covered up a string of casual sexual encounters with men.

The singer, whose single Tripping is No 20 in the charts, had sued over a series of stories in 2004 in the People newspaper and Star and Hot Stars magazines.

The high court heard that the publications' owners, MGN and Northern & Shell, now accepted that the stories alleging Mr Williams had engaged in homosexual liaisons with strangers were untrue and had agreed to make a formal apology.

Mr Williams was not in court for the settlement but his counsel, Tom Shields QC, told Mr Justice Eady: "Mr Williams is not, and has never been, homosexual."

The court heard that in August 2004 the People, owned by MGN, published a report headlined "Robbie's secret gay lover" alleging that he was about to deceive the public with the publication of a book, Feel, written in cooperation with Chris Heath, who had lived alongside the singer from 2002 to 2004. According to Mr Shields, the paper claimed that while in the book Mr Williams was "pretending" that his only sexual relations had been with women, "in reality he was a homosexual who had engaged in casual and sordid homosexual encounters with strangers". Similar allegations had been printed in Northern & Shell's Star and Hot Stars magazines in September. Both publishers now accepted that Mr Williams "did not attempt to conceal his true sexuality in the book, Feel".

Zoe Norden, solicitor for MGN and Northern & Shell, said: "I accept that the allegations to which my friend has referred were untrue. The defendant apologises to the claimant and expresses its regret for the injury and distress caused."